


Scare away the dark, I beg of you

by Anonymous



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Coming of Age, Getting Together, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, homophobic ted & karen wheeler, im sorry about that one oops, its mild tho, rated teen for mild cursing, supportive friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 21:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20160655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: In which Mike remembers everything that he and will have been through, Will is an oblivious gay fool, Max and El are both tired of them pretending they don't have feelings for each other, a group of teenagers that have been through too much shit turn into a group of young adults trying to forget about the darkness inside them, and the majority of the closest family in hawkins isn't related at all.Based off the prompt “What are you thinking about?”





	Scare away the dark, I beg of you

**Author's Note:**

> The format of this one is vaguely confusing, but basically only the beginning bit and end bit are strictly mike's pov, and they take place in the "present" (the present being the late 80s/very early 90s) and the rest of it is just sort of a third person telling of the events that take place between their junior year and the summer after their senior year (or grade 11 and 12, for all my fellow non-americans) (i'm very sorry if the terms "junior" and "senior" are wrong. i genuinely just didn't have a clue and i tried to google it but cultural things like that can be sketchy so know that by "junior" i mean gr11 and by "senior" i mean gr12)
> 
> I'm also very sorry about not posting! i don't really have much of an excuse aha, i've just been pretty unmotivated. (´∀｀；)
> 
> okay, done now. enjoy!

**“What are you thinking about?”**

Soft wisps of sunlight were streaming in. the digital clock glowed 11:07, but it was a Saturday, so who cared? The only thing that mattered to Mike at that moment was that Will looked positively angelic at that moment. The sun did something to that boy’s eyes, and it was never going to stop giving Mike a full-blown heart attack every time he saw it. Though, to be fair, Will was the kind of good looking where you could say that about quite literally any part of him.

Will asked the question softly, as though it meant nothing and everything. He tended to do that, to say and do these little things like he was giving away his soul with ease, to hand out parts of himself as though it didn’t cost him a single thing. It was the kind of thing most people never even noticed. But Mike always did.

He had been like that for years, for as long as Mike could remember, he had been the soft-spoken boy from the other side of town. The one that kept the curls of smoke at the back of his head confined to sketchbooks, whispered his secrets to the whole world through pictures, never words. Underneath kind eyes and floppy hair, he was brimming with all sorts of fear. But on the surface? He would pull the sun from the sky for a stranger on the street that had asked him to. He smiled whenever he got the chance. He was constantly sparking with joy, never appearing to falter, even when the names got worse and the tongues got sharp. His light never flickered.

MIke was always amazed by it. At first, he couldn’t fathom how it was possible for someone that had been dealt the shittiest hand in the deck from the start always stayed so upbeat. But soon, he learned to just take Will for what he was, instead of trying to explain it.

But then, on a chilly November night, dark seeped in and pushed out almost all the light.

Will was never the same after the year-and-a-bit long nightmare he endured. It broke him, and everyone around him, everyone that really and truly mattered, wasn’t sure how to fix a boy so damaged.

The small, tightly knit group of friends did their absolute best to help him, to keep him afloat, but time moved on, and so did they. Despite themselves, they were growing up. And while it would be unfair to say that Will wasn’t, things were going fairly differently for him.

They never really grew apart in the way you might expect. Shared trauma will do that to a group of scared teenagers. But Will fell out of the woodwork for a while. He still ate lunch with the other five most days, and he was always invited when they hung out as a group, but sometimes he chose to spend time alone. He had never given up on his art, and his talent had blossomed into something truly impeccable over the years. And maybe his sketchbook contained an awful lot of freckled cheeks and dark hair, but it’s not like he would ever actually let anyone look at his sketchbook, so who what did it matter? So some nights, when he knew hanging out with his friends would involve far more drinking and sneaking out than it did when they were fourteen, he stayed in the old, beaten down house. Sometimes with Jonathan (usually accompanied by Nancy, not that Will minded her at all), sometimes with his mother, sometimes all three of them. He didn’t care who it was, as long as it was someone. It had been many long years since that unfortunate night when there had been no one home, but his brain refused to let him forget.

The dark never really left him. It consumed less of him as he got older, but it never really went away. There was always that small buzz at the back of his mind. He was able to quiet it in the light of the day, but it found him at night. It found him when he woke up in a cold sweat, shaking as he tried to calm himself down so he could cram in a few more hours of sleep. It found him when the teacher flicked the lights to catch the classes attention. It found him when the wind whistled through the trees outside on a stormy night. And sure, sometimes when it kept him awake for hours, a certain tall, brown-eyed boy that worried too much would wander into his thoughts. And sometimes, he would pretend that boy was there to soothe him to sleep. But it wasn’t like, a thing. He just valued affection from his friends.

But everything changed when Will was seventeen. It was late spring of his junior year, and Will was getting ready to settle down for movie night with his mom when the phone rang. Joyce, who was already in the kitchen, picked up with an absent-minded “now who is calling at this time?” directed at no one in particular, but it wasn’t long before she called out to Will, saying the call was for him. Will untangled himself from the blankets he’d been wrapped up in and headed to the kitchen, taking the phone from his mother and briefly wondering who it was and what they wanted.

What he was not expecting, was Mike Wheeler.

“Will?” he said, his voice the cheap phone not quite capturing the beauty of a voice will had memorized by the age of twelve.

“Mike? What’s going on? I thought you were supposed to be with El tonight?”

“Yeah, I was,” Mike said, finishing his sentence despite clearly having more to say

“And?”

‘Well we uh, we got to talking and she, well, she sorta broke up with me.” Mike said, tone unreadable

“Shit, Mike. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well. It’s kind of been a long time coming. I probably would have done it soon if she didn’t.” said Mike rather matter-of-factly.

“Oh. well then. If you promise you’re not experiencing some kind of psychic break that’s gonna result in you showing up at school on Monday with a shaved head, I’ll leave you to it” said Will, directly ignoring the fact that he would rather do literally anything else than stop talking to Mike

Mike chuckled softly over the line. “I actually called to see if you want to come over? Have a guys night?”

“Oh, yeah. That sounds great. Have you talked to Dustin and Lucas yet?”

“What? Why would I talk to Dustin and Lucas?”

“Well, usually guys are invited to a guys night, Mike.”

“Oh! Yeah, no. I meant like, us guys. Just the two of us. Like old times.”

Will pretended his breath didn’t catch in his throat.

“Yeah, that sounds nice. I’ll be over in 20.”

Joyce didn’t seem to mind him leaving.

  
  


When he got to Mike’s house that night, things were clearly different. His parents weren’t home, having taken the opportunity of holly staying at a friend’s house to go out, considering they still didn’t trust Mike to watch her. Mike pretended it didn’t bother him, saying it was “one less responsibility for him to deal with” but Will was pretty sure he was the only one who saw the truth. Nancy had been moved out for a couple of years, and while Jonathan frequently made trips home, sometimes just for a meal and sometimes for days at a time, Nancy rarely visited for anything that wasn’t planned several days in advance. 

Yet Will had been alone with Mike plenty of times, and it had never been an issue. So why were things so tense then? 

Just as they usually did, they immediately headed downstairs to the basement, but ended up just sitting on opposite ends of the couch, both clearly unclear on how to proceed. 

After a few moments of silence, Will finally spoke up.

“Listen, Mike, I know you said you’re fine but… are you sure you don’t want to talk about what happened with El?”

“I mean, there’s not really much to talk about.”

“Sure there is. For starters, you never really said  _ why _ she broke up with you.” Will scooted a bit closer to Mike at this, still leaving a safe distance between them.

“Wasn’t much to say. She said she just didn’t really think we were working out and that, while she still cared about me, she didn’t care about me like  _ that _ . And I said I felt the same way.”

They both sat in silence for a moment, each buried in their own thoughts.

“She also said she didn’t think it was fair to keep me tied down when I clearly had feelings for someone else.”

Will turns to look up at Mike. Curious as he was, he was going to be sick if they spent the entire night discussing whatever girl Mike was drooling over so much that El felt she was “tying him down.''

“Really? What did you say?” 

“I said I was sorry if I had treated her unfairly, because she was right”

Will had sat for a moment to consider this recent change of events.

“So who’s the mystery girl?” Will asked, steeling himself for whatever name Mike came up with. 

“Who said it was a girl?”

That’s it. That’s the moment that Will’s heart just stopped beating entirely. He turned his gaze away from his fidgeting hands and dared himself to look up at Mike.

“Is it… not a girl?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper, praying that Mike didn’t hear the way his voice shook.

After far too long, Mike’s head gently shook no.

At that moment, Will was overcome by an energy very much not his own, and, without warning, crawled into the taller boy’s lap to face him. Mike sucked in a sharp breath as the underside of Will’s thighs made contact with the tops of his own, his brain completely shorting.

Will wrapped his arms around Mike’s neck, mouths less than an inch apart.

“This okay?” he breathed, Mike nodding hastily.

Then, ever so gently, he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Mike’s lips. It wasn’t exactly chaste, but there was no real heat behind it either. It was a kiss to say everything that had gone unsaid in the years they had spent pining. 

Will pulled away, leaning his forehead against Mike’s for a moment, before Mike moved his head upwards to capture Will’s mouth once more. They moved with far more intensity this time, it becoming clear to both of them how much the other wanted it.

It didn’t take long for Mike’s lips to leave Will’s, instead opting to kiss the edge of his jaw as Will tried (and failed) to remain calm. He moved up along the underside of Will’s jaw, using just the right amount of teeth and tongue in just the right places. Will was gasping for air the whole time, as though Mike had stolen the air from his lungs, and Mike was loving it. But it wasn’t until he reached the top of his jawline and began sucking on the skin right below his ear that Will let out a small whimper, his first audible noise, and Mike would be damned if it wasn’t the best thing he’d heard in his entire life.

They didn’t go much further than that that night, neither of them even remotely ready for something more, but that was good enough for both of them. 

After a couple of hours of lazily making out, they ended up upstairs with Will curled into Mike’s side, half watching some random movie that was on. Mike’s hand found its way into Will's hair, and it left Will feeling more content than ever.

Around midnight, they both lept up from the couch as though shocked by a live wire at the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. As fast as they could, they shut off the TV and headed downstairs, shutting off the lights and pretending to be asleep so Karen wouldn’t come to check on them for fear of waking them up.

From that night on, their relationship had continued in a similar fashion. Their last few weeks of school were tortuous, considering that news had spread that Mike, who had grown into himself around tenth grade and was now sought after by a large percent of the female population at Hawkins high, had broken up with his girlfriend. Will knew that Mike would deny their advances. He trusted Mike. but that didn’t stop him from feeling extremely possessive.

But time went on, and before either of them knew it, their junior year had ended. Summer had arrived, and they were free to spend their days however they pleased. Sure they still had to be careful around others, but they were at least more in control of how much they saw of other people. Nancy and Jonathan were around a bit more now that school was out, and Karen was home with Holly most of the time, but Will’s house still sat empty most of the time, save for the two of them, of course. 

It wasn’t until a sweltering afternoon in August that their master secrecy was unravelled. Dustin had the bright idea to go swimming at the quarry as a group, and everyone agreed without question. An hour later, they all met outside Will’s house with their things, and walked happily to the small body of water. There was a twinge in Mike’s heart as he remembered that cold November night several years ago, and he briefly wondered if Dustin, Lucas, and El felt it too, but every thought was cleared from his mind as Will turned and smiled at him, brighter than the sun.

Everything was going smoothly, though Mike had to physically stop himself from staring when Will shucked his shirt and exposed the lean back that he had come to love. But he controlled himself, and Will turned back to him with a grin and a “c’mon, let's go!”. Mike smiled back and pulled the soft cotton of his faded star wars tee over his head, tossing it to the pile of him and Wills stuff, but stopped short at the alarmed expression on Will's face.

“Will? What’s going on?”

Holding one hand over the left side of his face, as if to shield himself from their friends 15 or so feet down the sand, he explained in a hushed voice

“Remember the other night when you came over when my mom had the late shift?”

“Um, I guess?”

“And remember how you said it was really hot when I marked you?”

“Yeah?” said Mike, oblivious as always

Will, who was now beet red, looked pointedly at the top of Mike’s chest, just around his collarbones. Mike followed to his eyes to the point where several hickeys sat, immediately shooting his gaze to Will, both of them staring at each other, panic-stricken and wide-eyed.

As if on cue, Lucas had walked up at that exact moment.

“Hey, are you guys comi-”

His gaze had dropped just below Mike’s neck, face splitting into a shit-eating grin. He turned back to the other three, calling out to them

“Hey, guys, It looks like Mike found himself a girl!”

“What?!” called all three of them in unison, marching over. Mike made a futile attempt to cover himself, but his hand was immediately removed by Lucas so he could show the rest of the group. While the four of them inspected him, Mike couldn’t help but notice Will going even redder than before, staring pointedly at the ground.

“So, Mike” Dustin began, with a suggestive smirk “who is she”

At this, Max lifted her head to look at Dustin, face scrunched up in annoyance

“Come on, you guys are such idiots!”

At her outburst, all five of them had turned to look at her in confusion as she gave them all an incredulous look.

“Max,” Mike began slowly “what are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” she said, voice and face conveying that they were all the biggest idiots on the planet “that you’re CLEARLY nailing Will, and have been for months!”

There was a collective silence over the group, as everyone soaked in the shock of what she just said.

After a few moments, though, Lucas was the first to speak up.

“Guys? Is she… right?”

Mike could do nothing but stutter, a million possible outcomes that telling the truth could lead to racing through his head. But, to his surprise, a hand found his.

“Yeah.” said Will, so softly Mike wasn’t sure the others could hear him “she is.”

Nobody spoke, all considering this. Even usually unapologetic Max looked bashful about sharing her (correct) suspicions with the group. 

“Listen, guys,” said Mike, finally finding his voice “I know you’re probably grossed out by it but… this is just who we are. And for the record, Max, we’re in an actual relationship, not just some weird sex pact. But if it makes you guys uncomfortable then I think I speak for both of us when I say we’ll keep it somewhat quiet. Because I don’t think either of us wants to lose our best friends. But we’re also not going to apologize for being ourselves”

He squeezed Will’s palm, and felt Will squeeze back. 

“You seriously think you’re getting rid of us that easy?” asked El

“Yeah,” said Lucas “You guys could have told us that, no, you’re not dating, you’re both hitmen that specialize in killing children, and we’d still show up in mike’s basement completely unannounced tomorrow.”

And from then on, they knew everything would be okay. 

  
  
  


And it kind of was. 

They both still woke up in the middle of the night, panting and sweating, haunted by what they’d been put through far too young. On nights they were together, they would curl closer into the other, usually stirring their boyfriend just enough for him to curl right back. But on nights when they woke up alone, clawing for someone not there, it was harder. Some nights they would lie back down, trying their hardest to get back to sleep on their own. But most nights, they would pull out their radio and speak quietly into it enough that their parents wouldn’t hear, yet still loud enough to wake the other (assuming they weren’t already being kept up by insomnia, which was often the case) and talk about nothing in particular for anywhere from fifteen minutes to several hours, just wanting to know the other was safe, alive, and that they were never going to lose each other again.

And, surely enough, they both grew up, but never apart. They became a part of one another, though Mike supposes they kind of always were. It was rare to see them apart, honestly. Always deep in conversation, or pouring over something Will had drawn (he never stopped drawing Mike. Mike pretended he didn’t know, and Will pretended he didn’t know Mike knew.). They shared food and drinks, and on the nights one of them was home alone and the other was over, meaning they prepared dinner together, they never once had to ask for something, to say “excuse me” so they could get to a surface. The other just knew.

And then came their first apartment. It was small, grimy, and cheap, and Will liked to joke it was probably the scene of a crime. But it was theirs.

The day they moved in, every one of their friends came to help them, as well as Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy. They didn’t have much stuff, so with all of them, it didn’t take very long to get everything up four narrow flights of stairs. And later on, they all stayed when Mike called home to tell his parents that “I know I said I was moving in on my own, but I lied. I’m moving in with Will. Because he’s my boyfriend. And I love him and I don’t care if that makes you mad.” and they were all there to hold him when his father's tinny voice rang out of the crappy phone into the silent room to tell him not to come home until he’d adopted a “proper lifestyle” (Everyone headed home a couple hours later. Before they left, Nancy asked to borrow the phone, and Mike pretended not to hear her tell their parents she wouldn’t be visiting until they apologized to their son, and treated him and Will just as they did her and Jonathan).

  
  
  


Mike smiled as he remembered the clumsy way they fell in love. All the bumps and scuffs, the late nights and the early mornings, the breathless kisses and the tender hugs. The fear that still lingered inside each of them every time they were out in public. The careful control it took not to smile at each other too fondly in the grocery store, or lean on each other too much on a late bus ride home. And the way they gripped each other when the shitty wriring in their apartment made the lights flicker. But, despite all of that, they never stopped loving each other

“Hey, earth to Mike!”

Will tapped Mike’s arm, his expression becoming more and more amused.

Mike smiled back at him, realizing for the thousandth time how truly blessed he was to get to see this beautiful boy every morning.

“I’m actually asking, you know.” he said with a laugh, “You look like you’ve just cured cancer in your mind. Seriously, what are you thinking about?” 

Mike leans forward, kissing him softly and pulling back to press their foreheads together.

“You. Always you.”


End file.
